India,1945
by notsospeciallittlesnowflake
Summary: At the end, the girl from downstairs invited them for dinner and they all ate the curry she offered trying not to think about the melted remains of the guitar in the oven. Or The internationally famous wash-out the Marauders try to find their music in the next best alternative for India because James couldn't fake passports.
1. India, Alternated

When James Potter ominously showed up on his doorstep at 2 in the morning with a black hood, which was promptly put over his head, Sirius Black knew that this could mean only two things. A) James Potter had finally lost all of his one and a half remaining marbles and was going to serial kill him or B) It was time. Sirius knew it was probably the later; especially when he was unceremoniously shoved inside a car, his head bumping on the door, along with the owner of "Hey Sirius", who he knew was Lupin.

"James you tosser, what the fuck are you doing? I swear to all the gods and more that if you do not take this bloody bag off my head and untie my hands, I am going to drown you in bloody Thames!" Sirius said.

"Sorry lads, this is an intervention. Go to sleep Sirius, it's going to be a long drive." James said from somewhere in front of him and Sirius heard the distinct sound of the car engine being started.

Sirius remembers letting off a string of curses in a format that made sense to no one, including him. This wasn't the strangest thing James had done, and Sirius knew that he was overreacting a tad much, but suddenly being in a car with James and Remus, whose regulated breaths made him focus too much on the absence of Peter.

"Don't waste your energy on him Sirius. James has an idea, and illegality of kidnapping and tying people be dammed." Remus's soft voice broke his rant. Suddenly it was again too real. "But James, we need an answer. What _are_ you trying to do here?"

James's only reply was turning on the radio at full volume.

It had all started with James, like most of these things do. When eleven years old Sirius had accidently walked into the wrong train compartment and ended up with a football to his face, he knew that what would come next would be legendary. James had apologized and the next thing they knew, they were 12 and begging Remus to play drums for their new band. And Remus had done that, spent every single free minute learning to hit the third, fourth hand drum set the boys had bought pooling all of their pocket money. The funny thing was that they never expected to actually make it to where they were. At that time, 12 year old James's one and only true love was football and 12 year old Sirius's only ambition was to be loved. Honestly, they had never expected to be 18 and be playing to a sold-out stadium, and never expected to be wash-outs at the ripe of age of 23.

"We are here." James said loudly waking Remus from his sleep.

"Where is 'here'? actually, James" Remus replied rubbing the sleep from his eyes and mussing his hair in what he considered to be a horrifying James Potter fashion, to make it presentable. The black hood that James had put on him prevented him from seeing anything other than the faint silhouette of light, from what he presumed to be the car window. The sick feeling of hunger rolled around his stomach and the air smelled of rain.

"India" replied James and suddenly Remus felt very awake, his mind going into hyper-drive. "What?!" he almost screeched, well he did screech and Sirius woke up to that sound, swearing bloody murder.

"What the bloody hell is your problem Moony?!"

"Prongs took us to fucking India!"

"INDIA? WHAT THE HELL PRONGS?" Sirius attempted to pivot his hands which were tied behind his back to take off his bag.

"Calm down, It's figurative India, not the real one because McGonagall couldn't set up that without your permission." James said sullenly. "I had to settle for the alternative, but it is really an amazing place really."

The sound of scuffling told Remus that James was turning towards them, and soon the light blackness of the hood gave way to the obnoxious light of English countryside. James's smiled apologetically at Remus before moving to take off Sirius's hood. The silence that fell on the constricted room of the van engulfed them into a painful silence, as they all tried not to look at the empty shotgun seat.

"Do you remember the Beatles?" James started awkwardly and Remus stopped pulling at a loose string of his jeans and stared at James.

"No actually, I don't think I do." Sirius said pointedly.

"They found themselves and their music in India, and came up with some of the best music on this planet. So, we are going to try that. India."

"Prongs…"

"James why can't you fucking understand that the marauders are done for." Sirius started angrily, "The moment Peter…"

The name sat like a heavy stone between them and Sirius looked very uncomfortable before starting again. "The moment Peter walked out and betrayed out trust, we were over."

"But we are not! Sirius we can't let what happened two years ago destroy our entire life. Peter left us and now we only have the people we trust. You can trust me to not leave you and you can trust Remus to not leave you too…" James said but Sirius interrupted, "I trusted Peter to not leave me too."

James and Sirius stared at each other and Remus suddenly felt very sick.

"We are not going to leave you. Sirius we are brothers with something much more thicker than blood. I am not going to let Peter take that away from us. We owe this to our younger selves to try it again. This band thing because I swear to god I never felt closer to complete ecstasy than I did playing up there with all of you. Please I need my friends with me."

James's words visibly softened Sirius, who now dropped his defensive pose and just looked tired. Remus didn't say anything because he didn't trust him to not betray the sick pleasure he felt hearing James say those words rather than him. He was needed.

"We don't have a bass player." Sirius said at last and James smiled a smile that could power several small countries.

"I arranged some people" James said, excitement dripping in his voice, before turning to look at Remus. "Moony? What do you think?"

Remus smiled. "Let's India this place."


	2. Pretty Visitors

**A/N:** I should have posted this earlier, but I ended up being so sick that I was coughing out blood and the fact that my syllabus became super demanding all of a sudden. Updates will be sporadic, but I hope you like this chapter.

Chapter 2: Pretty Visitors

James's 'India" turned out to be the side of English countryside which was nothing but fields and farms and a lonely little building. The only sign of human society was the fences which guarded the fields and the distant speck on the horizon of what appeared to be a massive farmhouse. Remus, being a generally cynical fellow failed to understand why a two storied brown box was anything but a hideout for people who sold the sort of drugs that made a bloke go into severe psychosis, but James' excitement was hard to ignore.

"It may not look like much, but really this is an amazing place! Got it at a great price and the only one else in this area other than the landlady on the ground floor…"

"You know horror movies start out like this." Sirius placed himself next to Remus and looked up at the dilapidated house. The only sign of life appeared to be the dark blue curtains on a first floor window and suddenly the English countryside appeared to be more desolate. "We are three white boys messing around in an old, crumbling house. Even I would scream during our horror movie."

"Being a brown person, I can guarantee you that this house, no matter all appearances, is not haunted." Both Sirius and Remus jumped at the deep, monotone voice to see a girl about their age standing behind them, carrying grocery bags.

She was pretty, Remus supposes, in a non-conventional sort of way, with her long black hair which was dip-dyed blue and a figure that was over curvy, but not fat either. But any warm feelings one might have towards her flew out of the window because her eyes were the most dangerous thing he ever saw in the shade of brown. She had the kind of eyes that made him think that if he ever angered her, she would probably kill him and dispose of his body by blending it and putting it in sippy cups.

She stared at them for a painfully long second and then reaching inside her purse, "Here are your keys and there is your door. Don't burn down the house, and I guess come up to me if you are confused about anything?" she said it in a way that made the last part sound like a question, terrifying them even more and entered in through one of the blue-curtained windows after throwing Remus the keys, even though the door was just right besides it.

"Anyways" James started brightening again, a feat that even Remus would give him credit for because at that moment, all forces in the universe seemed to have a vendetta against his plan for friendship and was throwing everything from grey English wasteland to hell demons at his path.

"Let's get your stuff out of the van!"

James by his usual magic had not only managed to bring most of Sirius's wardrobe without him noticing, but also probably all of the instruments they had ever touched. "Good thing about Minnie is that you can always trust her for the best quality of instruments. She had given me a list of all the ones that she deemed worthy, but like I couldn't decide…"

"So you bought a small music store." Remus said, incredulous as James unloaded yet another drum set from his apparently narnia of a trunk. Turning his back on James, Remus looked up at the building and thought that he saw a flash of red in one of the dark windows of the first floor. Remus Lupin was an extremely smart individual, so it didn't take long for him to piece two and two together. James Potter, Plan to go back to the good old days and reclusive hideout with red hair only meant one thing.

"James" he said apprehensively, "whom exactly did you ask to take over the bass?"

James tone suddenly dropped from his cheery tone and he muttered something that made Sirius say "Oh hell no! James we are not going to go through this again! We all decided, and I actually do have the document somewhere, that after we graduated from school, you would stop following Lily Evans. I am not going through the strained sexual tension shit, you crying in my bed at 3 in the morning asking why she doesn't love you and terrible vodka all over my sheets. She doesn't like you because you are a creepy and relentless sadist! Why must you make yourself and more importantly us go through the pain again?!"

"Nothing is going to happen; our relationship will be strictly professional." Something in James's face and the way he said 'our relationship' made Remus think that this was not to be the case. But Sirius Black was on the roll again and Remus didn't think his opinion was worth repeating, especially not when Sirius was minutely shaking his head in order to make his hair fly and bring a more dramatic effect to his words. "Christ" he thought.

"Yes professional like how it was when you were the Head Boy and she the Head Girl?"

James visibly blushed at that, most probably remembering their last year at Hogwarts School for the Gifted. Nothing happened that year was worth repeating, except that James Potter and Lily Evans were found snogging in a broom closet a month after school started and the moment they left the school walls, fire and brimstone rained down and the couple ,whom the 8th grade girls had called 'Jily', was no more.

"James you have to understand you can't let that woman take over your head. Does Lily even know how to play bass? Never mind that, James you have to keep your hands to yourself."

"See my hands, with myself. It is even attached to my body via carbon matter. I promise you that I won't let me and Lily ruin this for us. This thing is friends only."

"Friends only" turned out to Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, Mary McDonald and the Prewett brothers. As far as Remus was aware, only Gideon knew anything about any instrument and that was only the tambourine he insisted on playing, albeit horribly, at every talent show till he was in secondary school.

Gideon let out a whoop when he saw them enter the room carrying massive loads of musical instrument, the way he slurred out 'loopin', an indicator that he was already quite smashed. Fabian was already snoring on the couch and Remus was going to attribute it to the drinking when he realized with a start the James Potter had kidnapped him at the middle of the fucking night, and Fabian had all the right to sleep at 5 in the morning as any normal human being might. It looked as if besides Gideon, everyone was asleep, on very uncomfortable looking positions on the couch, and in Marlene's case, on top of a giant cardboard box.

James and Sirius were discussing about the bass player quite loudly and passionately, with James defending Mary's apparent skill and Sirius questioning it, the episode with his broken nail and the minor arson probably fresh in his mind.

It was strange to see them back in their element, among the tired and sleepless people and the heap of music instrument. The rising sun was glinting of their dark hair, making it break into rainbows. Remus secretly took a picture of that on his phone, thanking modern technology for making pretentious pictures so much simpler. Remus should be there, discussing the topic with them. He knew that he was being too passive now and these were his friends, but the sheer nostalgia he was feeling threatened to spill out with his words and drown them all in a sea of self-pity and memories, and that Sirius and James did not deserve that, at least not right now.

So he did the thing that was less dangerous, though only slightly.

He explored the apartment.

It was alright, as far as apartment went. There seemed to be the main living area, the amount of coffee cups on the table hinting to it being the base of operations. One of the bedrooms had been converted to a recording studio, complete down to all the knobs and dials that he never quite got around to learning about and the oppressive new carpet smell. The other bedroom was lacking only in a bed, and had everything else, including for some reason, a sewing machine. Remus didn't even go to the kitchen, because in his honest opinion, even he stepping in it might start a fire.

As Remus navigated through the hall with was blocked by a honest to god pipe organ, he decided that someone will probably get killed during this 'retreat', most likely by the quiet woman below. Sleep he decides, it going to be only option that does not end up in him with tears of exasperation in his eyes at this moment and throws himself at the empty couch and hope to god that Gideon does not end up doing something stupid with the guitar he is twirling around.

Sirius Black had a habit of sleeping alone. Growing up, his family mansion was nothing but corridors of empty rooms, and that his father had viewed the heating bill quite acceptable if baby Sirius was sleeping in one of them. But when Sirius walked into the grand doors of Hogwarts School for the Gifted, sleeping alone was removed from the list of his sensory inputs. Sharing a room with 3 other boys always meant that one or the other would always have ended up passing out on his bed after a ridiculous movie or two. Even at the age of 15, the height of the adolescent need for masculinity, Sirius would always wake up with one of the boys' foot on his face, all of which was attributed to the strange shit brought by the shadiest characters in Hogwarts, or Mundungus Fletcher, and not on the fact that all of them knew of his need for contact to stop his nightmares.

So when Sirius again found himself lying in an uncomfortable position with Remus's pattern socked feet on his chest, an incident that had not occurred since the last days before the Peter situation, a sweet ache swept over his body as he tried not to smile. Nothing, not even Fabian's horrid shower singing or even the high pitched "James!" coming from somewhere in the apartment could change the fact that he was now, finally after so many years of mind numbing, lonely, just god fucking awful darkness, home.


End file.
